Method for gun barrel manufacture using tailored autofrettage mandrels

ABSTRACT

A method of manufacturing a monobloc gun barrel by calculating an optimal residual stress profile and then applying tailored autofrettage mandrels which are mechanically pressed down the bore of a large caliber barrel, the mandrel size optimized to create a residual stress distribution on the interior of the bore within the design constraints imposed by the worst-case heat flux scenario.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No.10/358,686 entitled METHOD FOR GUN BARREL MANUFACTURE USING TAILOREDAUTOFRETTAGE MANDRELS filed Feb. 5, 2003 and is incorporated byreference herein.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to an improved method of manufacturing agun barrel. More particularly, the present invention relates to anautofrettage method designed for the manufacturing of liquid cooledbarrels subjected to high rates of fire.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

For years large caliber guns have used residual stress to provideincreased strength and fatigue life to the barrel. The method most oftenused to produce the favorable residual stress is called autofrettagewhich is a manufacturing process resulting in plastic deformation to theinterior of the barrel. The autofrettage increases the elastic strengthof the barrel, makes gross change in their resistance to fatigue andinhibits the rate of crack propagation.

The autofrettage plastic deformations can be created in a number of waysincluding explosive, hydraulic or mechanical means. For example,mechanical autofrettage utilizes a press to force an oversized mandrelthrough the bore of a pre-machined forging. This causes the material atthe bore to yield in tension while allowing the material at the outsidediameter to remain elastic. After the mandrel has passed through thebore, the relaxation of the material results in a distribution ofresidual stress that is compressive on the interior of the barrel. Themagnitude of this residual stress is highly dependent on the amount ofmaterial yielding that is induced during this process, which is in turngoverned by geometric tolerances and material properties.

Recently, the operational firing requirements for large caliber gunshave dramatically increased. The emphasis on firing rates in excess often rounds per minute for extended periods has complicated barrelconstruction. High fire rates create a number of problems including“cook-off” of the ammunition propellant, projectile exudation, andincreased tube wear. Currently, the gun barrel temperature is monitoredduring firing, whether in combat or training. When the barrel is judgedto be too hot, the firing must be halted to allow the barrel to cool.Therefore, barrels must be cooled by air or liquid to remainoperational.

There is a need then to develop barrels with extended life capable ofhandling the high rates of fire. In general, a balance must be achievedbetween the thermal stress produced by the cooling system and theresidual stress produced by autofrettage. The ability to simply includecooling features in such newly designed larger caliber barrels is notstraightforward due to the tremendous pressures created within thebarrel, on the order of 60,000 psi. Typically, air cooled large caliberguns have been autofrettaged to a level where plastic deformation occursthroughout approximately 50% of the wall thickness. This practice isacceptable in traditional air-cooled barrels where the thermal stressesin the barrel are significantly less than water-cooled barrels. However,air-cooling will not support the higher firing rates.

Therefore, a method is needed for balancing autofrettage stresses withthe thermal stresses of a liquid cooled barrel. In the case of activelycooled guns, cooling of the barrels outside diameter induces significantthermal stresses that are incompatible with the stresses induced bytraditional autofrettage methods. Previous design approaches thereforehave either eschewed autofrettage, and designed to less demandingstrength and fatigue requirements, or taken a midwall cooling approach.The creation of cooling channels within the barrel effectively reducesthe thermal stresses and allows the level of over strain from theautofrettage process to approach that of a non-cooled design. However,the midwall design involves greater cost and manufacturing complexity.

There is a need then for a method of producing artillery barrels withthe strength and fatigue life appropriate for current combat scenarios.The barrel must be able to withstand the pressure and stress associatedwith the high fire rates. Moreover, it would be desirable, based on costand manufacturing complexity, to construct such a barrel using existingheat transfer methods so as to avoid the midwall cooling designs. Themethod should thus incorporate the expected barrel temperature profileand heat flux inputs from a worst case scenario when determining thelevel of autofrettage. Due to manufacturing tolerances, the methodshould be tailored for each barrel to further optimize the residualstress distribution to avoid bore collapse yet be as large as possibleto maximize the fatigue life.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is a method for applying a mechanical autofrettageprocess to externally cooled artillery barrels. Due to the temperaturedistribution expected within the barrel due to the rate of fire, theautofrettage process must be limited so as to avoid bore collapse. Thelevel of autofrettage is determined based on the yield strength of thematerial as compared to the acceptable stress level of the barrel. Themethod requires creation of a set of autofrettage mandrels, tailored bydiameter and taper geometry, which are selectively rammed down themachined barrel so as to create an acceptable residual stress profile.Mandrel selection is based on the yield strength of the forging samplesof each individual barrel combined with the individual mapping of theinner diameter of the barrel.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective cut-away view of a gun barrel with cooling pathillustration.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart depicting the logic flow of the presentinvention.

FIG. 3 is a graph depicting bore temperature and the differential walltemperature as a function of barrel length.

FIG. 4 is a graph depicting ultimate tensile strength of the barrelcompared to yield strength as a function of temperature.

FIG. 5 is a graph depicting the preferred autofrettage profile for abarrel.

FIG. 6 is a graph depicting the temperature dependency of the yieldstrength of the barrel compared to the Von Mises stress generated by thethermal stress and the autofrettage residual stress.

FIG. 7 is a graph depicting the increase in fatigue life of the barreldue to the use of tailored mandrels as compared to a standard mandrel.

FIG. 8 is a graph depicting variation in elastic strength of the barreldue to the use of a tailored mandrel as compared to a standard mandrelselection.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

A method for gun barrel manufacture using tailored autofrettage mandrelssubstantially meets the aforementioned needs. The method for barrelmanufacture begins with creation of a temperature profile based onbarrel geometry and heat flux inputs. An appropriate material is thenselected for the barrel forging. Next, the thermal stresses arecalculated for the forged barrel based on the temperature profile and aresidual stress distribution calculated for the autofrettage process.The resulting stress profile is checked for an acceptable strengthmargin at design pressures. A tailored mandrel is selected according tothe individual barrel characteristics to provide an optimal residualstress profile. The mandrel is then pressed through the barrel.

The process of pressing the mandrel through the barrel is known asautofrettage. Autofrettage involves expansion of the bore of the barrelso as to plastically deform at least the inner layers of the barrelmaterial beyond the elastic limit or yield strength of the material andto thereby generate residual tangential compressive stresses at thecylinder bore. These residual stresses counteract the destructiveeffects of the internal cyclical or intermittent high operatingpressures to which the barrel is subjected to during firing. The plasticdeformation of the inner bore of the barrel beyond the elastic limit ofthe material increases the service life as a function of the strength ofthe material. Unfortunately, the residual stresses from the autofrettageprocess tend to induce yielding in the same direction as the servicetemperature induced stresses. The autofrettage residual stresses must belimited to avoid yielding of the inner bore of the barrel upon theapplication of the service temperature.

FIG. 1 illustrates the type of weapon system requiring the tailoredautofrettage method of the present invention. FIG. 1 depicts a cutawayof a liquid cooled monobloc gun barrel 10 as mounted within slidestructure 22 for the U.S. Navy's Advance Gun System (AGS) as developedby United Defense L.P. The barrel 10 has a caliber of 155 mm and alength of 62 calibers (approximately 378 inches). Barrel servicepressure is 53,000 psi.

An external cooling system is required for the weapon based on asustained firing rate of 12 rounds per minute for 750 rounds. Thecooling system provides thermal dissipation for the recoil module 30 andthe barrel 10. Coolant enters the system and flows over the four recoilmodules 30 and recombines as it flows in to the transfer tube 16 andthen into the gun barrel housing 28. The coolant remains in directcontact with the barrel 10 as it travels from the gun barrel housing 28to the muzzle manifolds 18 at the end of the barrel 10. The barrel 10 issubjected to a wide temperature distribution, thus necessitating twoseparate coolant control methods. The fluid gap shells 20 control flowvelocity over the first half of barrel 10 where the barrel sleeve 26provides containment. A separate cooling jacket 12 provides flowvelocity over the second half of barrel 10. The fluid is collected atthe muzzle manifold 18 and returned via return line 14 to returnmanifold 24 and second transfer tube 16.

FIG. 2 illustrates the manufacturing method 100 of the presentinvention. The method is initiated by determining a worst case scenariotemperature profile 110 based on barrel geometry and heat flux. Thethermal stresses created by the high fire rate of modern artillerysystems clearly complicate the design process. The autofrettage residualstresses must be limited to avoid yielding in compression the inner boreof the barrel during service temperatures. FIG. 3 depicts therelationship between temperature and barrel position relative to thebreech face for the AGS system of FIG. 1. The bore temperature at thetime of projectile loading for the next firing spikes to 780° Fahrenheitwithin 50 inches from the breech due to ignition of the propellant anddecreases to nearly half that amount at the muzzle. The differentialtemperature across the barrel wall follows the bore temperature closelywithin 50 inches of the breech.

The next step 120 requires an evaluation of the material properties ofthe barrel at the expected temperatures. FIG. 4 depicts the effect thetemperature gradient has on the yield strength of the barrel assumingASTM A723 (Standard Specification for Alloy Steel Forgings forHigh-Strength Pressure Component Application). As the temperature in thebreech approaches 800° Fahrenheit, the yield strength of the barreldrops by 30,000 psi.

Thermal stress distributions 130 are then calculated for the proposedbarrel design. With the geometry, material selections and thermalloading determined, the autofrettage residual stress profile 140 can becalculated. FIG. 5 depicts the preferred autofrettage profile for thefirst sixty inches of the AGS barrel. Here, the elastic/plastic profilecombined with the thermal stress require a variable depth autofrettageprofile of approximately 25% at the breech to only about 10% overstrainat the beginning of the rifling. The centerline represents theelastic/plastic interface which is the depth of autofrettage.

Based on the autofrettage profile 140 a pressure stress distribution 150and elastic strength pressure 160 for the barrel are calculated. Theresultant stress distributions are checked for bore collapse 125,strength margin 135, elastic strength pressure 145 and fatigue life 155.For example, FIG. 6 illustrates the yield strength for the barrel basedon the temperature profile compared to the Von Mises stress distributionthat is generated by the combination the thermal stresses and theautofrettage residual stresses. The forging in this example has anambient yield strength on 165,000 psi. FIG. 6 illustrates a worst caseload from a boar collapse perspective. Moreover, should the fatigue lifemeasurement exceed current expectations, the maximum service pressurefor the barrel could be increased.

As thermal stress distributions drive barrel design, there is lessmargin for error in the autofrettage process. Prior art processes alwaysassumed that the bore diameter and the yield strength were uniform orthat the autofrettage expansion was great enough to outweigh anystructural differences in the barrel. In those cases only one mandrelwas required. However, variations in material properties of the barrelforging and bore diameters can cause significant changes to the actualresidual stresses created by the autofrettage process. These problemsare magnified when a light autofrettage process is used. For example, inthe AGS a variation of 0.0076 mm (0.003 inches) on the bore diameter canresult in a 12,000 psi reduction in the Von Mises residual stress.Likewise, a 10,000 psi reduction in the yield strength of the barrelresulted in a residual stress increase of 9,000 psi.

Therefore, during the manufacturing process for each barrel, informationwill be gathered to determine precisely which mandrel will produce thedesired residual stress distribution within the barrel. This informationwill include measuring actual yield strength of the material fromforging test records as well as the actual measured diameter of the borefrom inspection records. In this way the variation of the final barrelproperties can be controlled much more closely. FIGS. 7 and 8 illustratehow a tailored mandrel, which is selected based on individual barrelcharacteristics, dramatically improves barrel performance. The tailoredmandrel in FIG. 7 provides increased fatigue life as a function of borecollapse while elastic strength is enhanced by the use of a tailoredmandrel (FIG. 8).

Once the autofrettage profile is calculated and checked samples from theforging of each barrel will be tested for yield strength and theunfinished inner diameter of each barrel will be mapped. From thecombination of these results, an appropriate mandrel will be selected toprovide the optimal autofrettage profile to the barrel. The diameter ofthe mandrel, the number of tapers and the length of the constantdiameter sections will be optimized for each barrel. For the AGS barrel,it is envisioned that the mandrel will be constructed out of tungstencarbide. Mandrel diameters will vary by 0.001 inches, and constantdiameter sections will range between 0.25 and 0.75 inches long. Thepress force required to press the mandrel through the barrel ranges from400 to 700 kip. Upon completion of autofrettage, the outer barrel ismachined to its finished diameter and then excess inner barrel materialis removed. Proof firing pressure is applied followed by servicetemperature. Finally, proof pressure and service temperature are appliedsimultaneously.

It is obvious to those skilled in the art that other embodiments of thedevice and method in addition to the ones described herein are indicatedto be within the scope and breadth of the present application.Accordingly, the Applicant tends to be limited only by the claimsappended hereto.

1. A monobloc artillery barrel comprising an external surface subject toa constant liquid flow for cooling and a plastically deformed innersurface, said deformation created by mechanical autofrettage.
 2. Thebarrel of claim 1 wherein favorable residual stresses are created as aresult of said autofrettage.
 3. The barrel of claim 2 wherein thefavorable residual stresses are optimized to prevent barrel borecollapse and maximize fatigue life.
 4. The barrel of claim 3 wherein thepredicted fatigue life is 3070 cycles.
 5. The barrel of claim 3 whereinthe bore collapse margin is 1.04.
 6. The barrel of claim 3 wherein anexpected heat flux experienced by said barrel establishes a yieldstrength profile.
 7. The barrel of claim 2 wherein autofrettage isachieved by pressing a tailored mandrel down said barrel.
 8. The barrelof claim 3 wherein the geometry of the mandrel is tailored by adjustinga diameter, and a taper length.